HE FIVE STUDEBAKER brothers were blacksmiths and wagon builders when they founded the company in 1852, and many a 19th Century pioneer crossed the Great Plains in a Studebaker-manufactured horse-drawn wagon known as a ‘prairie schooner’. It wasn’t until 1902 that the company leapt into the newfangled automotive world, initially building electric cars and lorries. Within a decade, however, they were focusing on the petrol-powered cars that became Studebaker’s staple.
